One Hundred Years of Solitude is Coming to Netflix

Image courtesy of fictionalcafe.com

By Noelia Veras

Gabriel García Márquez’s book One Hundred Years of Solitude is officially set to become a new series on Netflix. The book, originally published in 1967, has been one of the most popular books since its release. García Márquez won a Nobel prize for writing this world-famous work of literature.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is “the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race,” according to accredited book critic William Kennedy.

After García Márquez’s death in 2014, his family acquired the rights to One Hundred Years of Solitude, thus it was his sons who accepted the deal from Netflix. His sons, Rodrigo Garcia and Gonzalo García Barcha, will both be working as executive producers on the show. The show itself will be filmed mainly in Colombia to fully embody the spirit of the book.

Although One Hundred Years of Solitude been out for over 50 years, it has never been adapted as a film. García Márquez stated that he did not want his most successful book to be turned into a movie because of its dynamic nature. The book follows several generations of the Buendía family, and García Márquez felt that not even two movies could accurately capture the timeline. Another concern was whether or not the movie would translate well to English.

“For decades our father was reluctant to sell the film rights to ‘Cien Años de Soledad’ because he believed that it could not be made under the time constraints of a feature film, or that producing it in a language other than Spanish would not do it justice,” said his son, Rodrigo Garcia.

The book alone has been a smashing success, having sold around 50 million copies and been translated into 46 different languages. It is a staple for many Latin Americans, especially those from Colombia.

Fellow Latin American writer Pablo Neruda claims Garcia Marquez’s book is “the greatest revelation in the Spanish language since the Don Quixote of Cervantes.”

The book falls under the genre of Magical Realism, which integrates reality and fantasy in a seamless manner. One Hundred Years of Solitude follows exactly seven generations of the same family, highlighting the highs and lows of their history. While the focus is on this family, the backdrop of Colombian history is both prevalent and extremely important to grasp in order to fully delve into the tale.

This upcoming series is an extremely big deal in the literary world, having the responsibility of carrying the story of one of the greatest Latin American authors in all of history. The release of the series itself has not been announced yet, but planning and casting is speculated to have already begun. Ultimately, this story has the potential to touch many more people and transcend the Latin American sphere more than it already has. Because of Netflix’s millions of users One Hundred Years of Solitude will be able to reach a wider audience and could inspire more people to read the book and thus revive the world-wide piece of literature.